2021 Van Volxem Schonfels Riesling Grosses Gewächs

Compared to the vineyards on the Moselle River, those on the Saar tributary are slightly cooler. Viticulture is therefore even more of a challenge here, and as a rule the wines, and certainly the Rieslings of the Saar, are even more nervous and mineral than those of Moselle. Elegance is the key word here, and the same goes for the wines of Weingut from Volxem, nowadays one of the Saar's leading wineries.

The Van Volxem company in the village of Wiltingen has grown into a hit in the past ten years, after it was taken over by Roman Niewodniczanski in 1999. This descendant of the Bitburger family - you know, from the beer - has invested heavily in Van Volxem since then. . Incidentally, he first changed the name of the winery. Peter Jordan, who acquired it in 1993, had renamed Volxem's Weingut into Jordan & Jordan. So Niewodniczanski decided to return the winery to its original name after six years. Niewodniczanski even planted grape vines in vineyards between the rows, because he thought there were too few vines on one hectare. The cellar and winemaking facilities were also addressed. Beautiful vineyards were purchased to further improve the quality of the vineyard property. The total area of the vineyards is now 26 hectares, 95% of which is planted with riesling, and exclusively in Steillagen, so the very best slopes. The average age of the vines is over forty years, so it is not surprising that the wines have a beautiful depth and concentration. The oldest vines are in the Wiltinger Gottesfuß vineyard, and are 120 years old! They even stand on ungrafted rhizomes, so they don't have an American lower stock, as almost all grapes today have to protect them from the devastating grape lice. There are also possessions in other top vineyards, such as the Klosterberg, Kupp and the Scharzhofberg. The vineyards produce only low yields, no more than around 35 hectoliters per hectare. The grapes are harvested late, from the beginning of October, and the harvest usually lasts until December. In the cellar, the wines ferment on classic, large wooden casks with yeasts from the grapes themselves, so without the addition of yeasts from a package. All worries, all perfection and the large investments yield wines that can be counted among the top of Germany.